The “Little Brothers of Jesus”

The message invites us, in our personal lives, “to open our eyes and hearts to listen deeply to their stories, their fears and their dreams, overcoming that indifference which reduces human beings to statistical data that do not directly affect us.” They are people with names and surnames, real faces, as the Pope says, who appeal to our consciences.

Pope Francis used to say that the greatest sin of today’s society is indifference. Remaining insensitive to this tragedy—and even more so when children are affected—is to despise God himself, because “whoever rejects one of these little ones rejects me.”

The message also invites the ecclesial community to “turn hospitality from an abstract concept into a constant pastoral practice. We cannot limit ourselves to delegating this task to institutions or associations with a specific charism. Faced with the real people who challenge us in our daily lives, the entire Christian community is called to regard them as its own children and to draw close to each one’s personal story.”

As a Christian community rooted in the Gospel, which calls us to welcome the stranger, clothe the naked and feed the hungry, because in them we encounter Jesus himself, we also have a responsibility to encourage—and even demand—that political and social institutions do not turn a blind eye, but assume their responsibility to respond to the urgent needs of migrants and refugees, both when they arrive and in their places of origin, doing everything possible to eliminate the causes that forced them to leave.

Through our Comboni magazines and media outlets, we want to draw attention to a phenomenon that, unfortunately, is spreading ever more widely throughout our planet. One specific case that deserves to be told is the experience of a Christian community served by the Comboni Missionaries in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. A direct testimony, lived firsthand, speaks more powerfully and clearly than all the speeches we could make.

This is not only the experience of those who are forced to flee, but also that of those who, faithful to their Christian faith, are willing to welcome “the little ones”, as Jesus says: “Whenever you welcome one of these little brothers of mine, you welcome me.”

Although it may no longer be as prominent an issue today as it was a few months ago, the migration crisis in Mexico, where I am writing from, remains urgent.

Moreover, the wars in Ukraine, Iran, Palestine, the Great Lakes region, Sudan, South Sudan and many other places; the waves of migration that continue to occur in the Mediterranean Sea—as illustrated by the recent case of the Spanish enclave of Ceuta in Morocco—or the constant arrival of African migrants on European shores all invite us to keep our eyes open to a reality that cries out to heaven.

Millions of people continue to knock at our door, and they deserve to be welcomed as the little brothers of Jesus.

Father Ismael Piñón, mccj